text:
Palo Alto's biggest, weirdest and wildest stories of 2019
The highlights and lowlights of a fractious year
The news of 2019 brought us corrupt parents and determined protesters, victims who decided to finally speak out and people celebrating achievements that were realized at long last.
The new Stanford Hospital finally opened, a $2 billion state-of-the-art facility that will play a key role in the life of the community as well as in responding to local disasters for decades to come. Other long-sought projects got off the ground, or into the ground, such as construction of the California Avenue garage, with the new police headquarters to follow.
Some efforts stalled out, like the city's hopes to see developers build enough housing to lessen the demand, while others continued slow and uncertain percolation.
Troubling national phenomena — divisiveness and polarization — came home to roost in April when one woman's attempt to dox a man wearing a Make America Great Again hat instead went viral, backfired and forced her into hiding.
In a refreshing turn of events, the Palo Alto Unified School District saw relatively smooth sailing on the part of administrators following years of turmoil and turnover. Meanwhile, a concerning tightfistedness when it comes to public records on the part of the city of Palo Alto seems to have taken hold.
With leadership of our country facing uncertainty, locals are looking at 2020 with an air of cynicism. Before we launch into a new and potentially tumultuous year, we pause to review the best and worst happenings of 2019 — and consider how 2020 might be better.
Biggest revelation of the corruption of privilege
Operation Varsity Blues
Doing nothing to bolster a positive view of human nature, a group of 33 wealthy parents found themselves charged in March with federal crimes for allegedly bribing test proctors and athletic coaches to secure their children spots at top-ranked colleges and universities. The $25 million scandal involved 11 prominent, local parents from Palo Alto, Atherton, Menlo Park, Hillsborough and Mill Valley and college-admissions counselor William "Rick" Singer, who helped fake athletics resumes so their children would be recruited for college teams, including at Stanford University. In addition, SAT and ACT test proctor corrected the children's answers or took the tests himself to boost the students' scores. The parents allegedly paid Singer hundreds of thousands of dollars through his fake nonprofit organization, The Key Worldwide Foundation.
Most of the local parents have pleaded guilty to a variety of charges — including conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and honest services fraud — and received sentences ranging from no prison time to five months of incarceration along with fines and probation. Four local parents, including Palo Altans Gregory and Amy Colburn, have pleaded not guilty. They face additional charges, including money laundering, and await trial in 2020.
Most viral political diatribe
The MAGA hat tirade
An elderly man's quiet cup of coffee at Starbucks on California Avenue in Palo Alto on April 1 turned into a diatribe-heard-around-the-world after a woman took umbrage with his wearing a red Make America Great Again (MAGA) hat. The Palo Alto woman attempted to shame the 74-year-old man and loudly exhorted other patrons to do the same. They didn't join in, and he decided to leave the cafe. She followed him outside and continued to berate and swear at him at the top of her lungs, at one point calling the man, who is Jewish, "Nazi scum." Posting about the incident on Facebook and Twitter, she called the man a "hater of brown people" and threatened to post pictures of him on social media, which she then did. She asked the public for help finding him — "I want him to have nowhere to hide," she wrote — a practice called "doxing," or posting a person's contact information to encourage threats and harassment. The incident and her postings went viral, and in a case of "what goes around, comes around," she soon found herself the object of scorn. The woman received hate mail and death threats, lost her job and for a time disappeared. She was later found safe.
Most significant arrest
John Getreu — alleged serial killer
DNA technology and dogged police work nabbed an alleged killer in two 45-year-old cold-case murders this year. Leslie Marie Perlov and Janet Ann Taylor, both 21, were found strangled on Stanford University land in 1973 and 1974, respectively. The cases remained unsolved until Santa Clara County detectives ran evidence containing DNA through familial DNA databases. Experts identified a suspect, John Arthur Getreu, 74, of Hayward, California. He was arrested in November 2018 for Perlov's death and charged this past May with Taylor's killing. He has pleaded not guilty to both cases and remains in jail.
Getreu lived in Palo Alto and surrounding cities during the time of the murders and worked at Stanford Hospital in the cardiac transplant laboratory at the time of Taylor's death. By the 1970s, Getreu was already a convicted killer, having been sentenced for the rape and murder in Germany of a 15-year-old in 1964 when he was 18. He is likely to stand trial in 2020.
Most important celebration
Stanford Hospital opening
A decade in the planning and building, the new 824,000-square-foot Stanford Hospital finally opened on Nov. 17 when staff wheeled 200 patients from the old hospital into the new one. The new seven-story hospital, located at 500 Pasteur Drive, doubles to 600 the number of patients that can stay overnight. A new Level 1 trauma center is designed to handle injuries and illnesses caused by catastrophic events such as earthquakes, influenza and terrorism. Pluses for patients: All of the patient rooms are private and individual, surrounded by sweeping views; there's a convertible bed for family members to stay overnight; and each room is wired for Wi-Fi so patients can contact their medical care team, stream movies and connect to the internet; an MRI-imaging suite is connected to an operating room for rapid diagnosis and surgical followup; and there are five healing gardens.
Runners up: Palo Alto's 125th anniversary, which the city celebrated on April 28 with the opening of its first time capsule from 1994.
East Palo Alto pedestrian-bike bridge, a $14 million U.S. Highway 101 overpass that opened on May 18.
The Avenidas senior center reopened on April 1 with a renovated 22,000-square-foot facility that includes a fitness studio, cafe and technology room.
Palo Alto retired its old, polluting sludge incinerators in June and unveiled a new dewatering and haul-out facility.
Construction began on a six-story California Avenue parking garage at 350 Sherman Ave.
Biggest disappointment
The City Council talked the talk in early 2018, when members named housing one of their top priorities for the year and set a goal of approving 300 new housing units annually. Two years later, that "talk" has produced little reason for optimism. The city's new housing incentive program, which offered density bonuses for residential developments, has had no takers. Mayor Eric Filseth devoted his "State of the City" speech largely to criticizing SB50, the housing bill that would have required cities to approve multi-story developments near transit hubs and in areas rich in jobs. And the city's most promising housing site, at Fry's Electronics, has lost its lustre after the property owner said it's not interested in redeveloping any time soon.
The only significant housing project that the council approved this year was a 57-unit development for low-income residents on El Camino Real — a victory that was more than offset by the loss of 75 apartments at the President Hotel downtown, whose owners want to turn the building into a boutique hotel.
Despite acknowledging the "housing crisis," council members are likely to continue to oppose new state laws that encourage — or require — more housing. But given the city's recent track record, their assertions that "local control" is paramount for increasing the housing supply are ringing increasingly hollow.
HIGHLIGHT: Hugest implosion
Stanford general-use permit application
With about 3.5 million square feet of proposed development, Stanford University's proposal to expand its campus became known as the "largest project" ever under the governance of Santa Clara County. But just days before the county Board of Supervisors was set to vote on the university's application, Stanford abruptly withdrew it. The university's decision both was and wasn't surprising. On the one hand, Stanford was on the cusp of victory, with the county preparing to let it build 2.275 million square feet of academic space and 2,192 housing units for staff between now and 2030. On the other hand, the permit that the county was preparing to approve — with additional required housing and stricter traffic limits — was not the one that Stanford wanted, making the victory hollow.
In the end, the approval process took on a meta flavor, becoming a negotiation about negotiations. Stanford wanted to negotiate a "development agreement" with the county — a mechanism that would have required opaque and diplomatic give-and-take. County leaders insisted on going through the regular planning process of setting requirements that Stanford would have to meet to compensate for problems the project would create. In announcing the withdrawal on Nov. 1, Stanford President Marc Tessier-Levigne said the university made the decision "with regret, but with a clear-eyed understanding of the challenges before us in achieving a successful long-term permit at this time."
Most notable coming out
Chanel Miller
For years, she was only known to the world as Emily Doe, a name that took on outsized symbolism: of solidarity for sexual-assault survivors, of the flaws in the criminal justice system, of the power of the growing movement in which women everywhere were saying, "Me too." But 2019 was the year that Palo Alto native Chanel Miller shed her anonymity and came out to the world as much more than the woman who had been sexually assaulted by Brock Turner at Stanford University in 2015. Miller revealed her name this fall in advance of the publication of her memoir, "Know My Name," in which she grappled honestly and poignantly with the aftermath of the assault, the trauma of the criminal trial and reclaiming her identity. "Never fight to injure, fight to uplift," she wrote on the final page of the book. "Fight because you know that in this life, you deserve safety, joy and freedom. Fight because it is your life. Not anyone else's." Miller is a Gunn High School graduate, a writer and artist. She lives in San Francisco.
Runner up: Rowena Chiu, a Palo Alto mother of four, broke two decades of silence this fall with a New York Times op-ed describing how Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein had allegedly attempted to rape her while she was working as his assistant in 1998. In an interview with the Weekly, she said she realized "there's a public duty, a civic good in speaking out."
Most promising development at City Hall
Office of Transportation
City Hall saw some major changes in 2019, the first year with City Manager Ed Shikada in charge. The most dramatic move was the creation of the Office of Transportation, which now has a staff of more than 15 employees and is charged with reforming the city's parking system, expanding local shuttle service and planning for rail grade separation. Some of its efforts are expected to bear fruit in 2020, when the city rolls out its new bike- and scooter-share programs and (presumably) narrows down its preferred alternatives for reconfiguring the railroad tracks at roadway intersections. With transportation topping the council's priorities list and residents split over recent bike boulevards laden with "street furniture," the stakes are high for the new office and its recently hired leader, Chief Transportation Official Philip Kamhi. And while success is not guaranteed, having more resources should help.
HIGHLIGHT: Worst trend at City Hall
Rising secrecy
It's been a terrible year for oversight at City Hall. When City Auditor Harriet Richardson announced her resignation at the end of 2018, few could have expected her position to remain vacant a year later. But her office, which had been mired in internal bickering for several years before her departure, remains shrouded in uncertainty, overseen by an outside consultant while the city considers fundamental changes. One option on the table calls for shifting some of the responsibilities of the city auditor's office to the city manager's, a move that would significantly undermine the auditor's independence.
An even more troubling trend is the lack of independent oversight in the Palo Alto Police Department, despite a recent uptick in claims of police brutality and the high-profile retirement of a veteran police sergeant who was caught on a surveillance video violently arresting a resident at Buena Vista Mobile Home Park. For more than a decade, the city's independent police auditor, OIR Group, has issued twice-a-year reports that detailed complaints against police officers, described all cases in which officers used force, and evaluated the department's response to these incidents. This year, the police auditor did not issue any reports, citing direction from the city.
The City Council for its part has been mum on the issues of police brutality and improper conduct. Its only decision — to approve a $572,500 settlement with the Buena Vista victim (a settlement that also required all officers to undergo LGBTQ sensitivity training) — took place behind closed doors and was not publicly acknowledged until the following day, when reporters began making inquiries.
City staff have, similarly clammed up when asked about potential misconduct by police officers. Responses to requests for information through the California Public Records Act have been dragged out for months and, in the end, the city has released little information. It declined to release any information about an officer who was reportedly driving under the influence when he hit a neighbor's car while off duty and then was caught lying about it to investigators.
The city has also not provided documents related to a botched emergency response in June to a 911 call. The Weekly requested any copies of audio and video recordings from the devices in the supervising officer's patrol car and body-worn camera; emails related to the functioning and existence of the officer's body-worn camera, patrol car dash-camera recordings and GPS tracking; and the policies and training documents the police department said it modified in the wake of the incident.
Similarly the city has withheld all information regarding its new contract with police auditor OIR Group, which the council approved on Dec. 16. And when confronted earlier this year with news reports of a senior police supervisor using a racial slur while speaking to another officer, the city's only public action was to modify its agreement with OIR to clarify that future audits will not include internal personnel matters.
HIGHLIGHT: Most notable absence of drama
Palo Alto Unified under Superintendent Don Austin
The school board hired Don Austin from the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District in 2018, coming off of years of contention, drama and trauma in Palo Alto Unified, from federal investigations into bullying and sexual violence to a $6 million budget fiasco to teen suicide clusters to high turnover at the district office. His year and a half in Palo Alto may have marked the calmest period in the district in recent decades.
While there have been some dustups, primarily stemming from communication issues — such as the district's decision to close new enrollment at four elementary schools for the Voluntary Transfer Program, which allows East Palo Alto students to attend Palo Alto Unified schools, and a reorganization of the special-education department — the high-stakes fights that defined much of his predecessors' tenures have largely disappeared. Even a plan to revamp middle school math, a predictably contentious topic in Palo Alto, elicited no more than 10 public comments at the Dec. 10 school board meeting (though parents have said that the NextDoor.com and WeChat forums have been buzzing with reaction).
Biggest disconnect
Cubberley Community Center
It was supposed to be a true partnership that would transform Palo Alto's dilapidated treasure, Cubberley Community Center. That, at least was the vision that a 28-member committee of city and school stakeholders presented to the City Council in 2013. While it took some time to get off the ground, the joint planning effort by the city and the Palo Alto Unified School District proceeded apace this year, with a series of well-attended community meetings concluding in May. And in November, the project's consultant, Concordia, completed the master plan for Cubberley, a document that envisions more green space, new swimming pools, teacher housing on a site next to Cubberley and rebuilt gymnasiums and auditoriums that would be shared by the city and the school district.
But it became increasingly clear by the end of the year that the plans are unlikely to materialize. School board members have indicated that they have no interest in rebuilding the gym or the auditorium any time soon and have backed away from building teacher housing. And some city leaders have grown impatient with the school district's wavering. The two sides are preparing to sign a fresh lease for Cubberley in early 2020, giving them until the end of 2022 to come up with a cost-sharing arrangement for the improvements. While the new lease may bring some clarity and certainty to the process, it will also ensure that nothing of substance will happen at the community center any time soon.
Issue most acted-upon by City Council
When the City Council adopted "climate change" as a priority in February, some residents accused the council of "virtue signaling" rather than setting goals that are actually achievable. In the following months, the council demonstrated that when it comes to environmental sustainability, it means business. Emboldened by the priority, the council voted in June to ban plastic straws and produce bags and followed up in July with a law requiring contractors to disassemble — rather than demolish — buildings so that materials can be salvaged and reused. The coup de gras came in November, when the council passed a ban on natural gas in new buildings (which will now have to be all-electric) and reached an agreement with Valley Water, formerly known as the Santa Clara Valley Water District, to build a new recycled-water plant in the Baylands. The deal will expand the use of treated effluent for irrigation throughout the county and, if things go as planned, supply the city and Santa Clara County with a new long-term — and drought-proof — water source.
Quickest leadership turnaround
Ravenswood City School District superintendent
Gloria Hernandez-Goff was put on paid administrative leave and forced to resign in February following a tumultuous, controversial tenure as the Ravenswood City School District's superintendent. Her temporary replacement, Gina Sudaria, the district's student services director and a longtime staff member, has in just several months lifted staff morale and moved forward difficult conversations about budget cuts and school closures. It remains to be seen whether she'll become the district's permanent superintendent, with the board narrowly voting in October to conduct an external superintendent search, despite community pleas to keep Sudaria (including from donors eager to support the new leadership).
Best example of 'NOT keeping up with the Joneses'
RV parking program opens in East Palo Alto; Palo Alto tries (again) to follow suit
East Palo Alto proved to be "the little city that could" this year when it tackled the homeless issue on its streets. The city partially funded a pilot safe parking program, which opened on land it owns on Bay Road in early May and provides spaces for up to 20 RVs to park overnight, plus toilets, showers and other amenities. The program is run by local nonprofit Project WeHope, which provides the homeless RV dwellers services, job counseling and help finding housing. So far, 10 families and individuals have moved into permanent homes, according to a December staff report. Palo Alto tried to enact an oversized-vehicle street-parking ban five years ago but tabled the ordinance after a similar southern California ordinance was challenged in court. Attempts to get churches to house a safe-parking program also failed. This June, Council members Tom DuBois and Lydia Kou proposed a safe-parking program on city-owned properties, an idea that the council's Policy and Services Committee on Nov. 12 unanimously supported. In the interim, the committee recommended that a three-month pilot program launch on church properties next year. The council will then consider a larger program on two potential city properties.
Runner up: East Palo Alto's long-awaited $14 million pedestrian-bicycle overpass at U.S. Highway 101 opened on May 18, linking the east and west sides of the city and providing access to and from neighboring Palo Alto, Menlo Park and Stanford. Palo Alto's planned bike/pedestrian bridge over 101 has yet to break ground.
Read more of our year-in-review coverage:
Weekly journalists recap the biggest news and surprising trends of the year on an episode of Behind the Headlines, our weekly show now available on our YouTube channel and podcast page
News that made the decade: Recapping the defining moments of the 2010s
A year in Shop Talk: The openings and closings of 2019
An interview with a rat — and other reporters tales: What Weekly reporters did to get a few of this year's stories
In Memoriam: A tribute to remarkable figures of the Midpeninsula
Rising to the occasion: Photos illustrate how Palo Alto persevered in 2019
Odd stories from 2019 we wish came straight from our imaginations


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Q: UISegmentedControl click event not working in IOS 6 I have created a mapview, with page curl feature in it. The mapview is having a toolbar, with a page curl button. On clicking the button, the mapview page curls. Here is the code.
-(IBAction) onPageCurl:(id)sender{

pageCurlViewController = [[MyMapViewPageCurlViewController alloc] initWithNibName:@"MyMapViewPageCurlViewController" bundle:nil];
[pageCurlViewController.navigationController.toolbar setHidden:NO];
[pageCurlViewController setModalTransitionStyle:UIModalTransitionStylePartialCurl];
[pageCurlViewController setToolbarItems:toolbarItems];
[[self navigationController] presentModalViewController:pageCurlViewController animated:YES];

[pageCurlViewController getMapView:&mapView];
[pageCurlViewController release];
}

As the mapview page curls, I have a new viewcontroller underneath it. The new view controller has a segmented control with 3 segments.
- (void)viewDidLoad
{
[super viewDidLoad];
// Do any additional setup after loading the view from its nib.

[self.navigationController.toolbar setHidden:NO];
[directionSearchSegmentedControl addTarget:self action:@selector(segmentAction:) forControlEvents:UIControlEventValueChanged];
directionSearchSegmentedControl.selectedSegmentIndex = selectedIndex;
UIBarButtonItem *directionSearchSegmentedControlButton = [[[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithCustomView:directionSearchSegmentedControl] autorelease];

NSArray *toolbarItems = [NSArray arrayWithObjects: navigatorButton , flexibleSpace, directionSearchSegmentedControlButton, flexibleSpace, pageCurlButton, nil];
[self setToolbarItems:toolbarItems];
[self.navigationController.toolbar setHidden:NO];

}

I have standard/satellite/hybrid view of the map on clicking each segments in the segmented controller.
- (void)segmentAction:(id)sender
{
[self dismissModalViewControllerAnimated:YES];
    if([sender selectedSegmentIndex] == 0){
        selectedIndex = 0;
        pageCurlMapView.mapType = MKMapTypeStandard;
    }
    if([sender selectedSegmentIndex] == 1){
        selectedIndex = 1;
        pageCurlMapView.mapType = MKMapTypeSatellite;
    }
    if([sender selectedSegmentIndex] == 2){
        selectedIndex = 2;
        pageCurlMapView.mapType = MKMapTypeHybrid;
    }
    if([sender selectedSegmentIndex] == 2){

    }
directionSearchSegmentedControl.momentary = YES;
selectedIndex = directionSearchSegmentedControl.selectedSegmentIndex;
}

The page curl feature is working fine. As the page curls, as mentioned before, I have a segmented control in the new view. But the the segmented control is not working properly in IOS 6. I have debugged and checked. On the click of the segments, the control doesn't enter the event method.
Its still working fine in the previous versions of IOS, but not in IOS 6. Cant figure out, what is wrong. Help needed.

A: If you look at the Xcode console when the app launches, do you see a message like this:
Applications are expected to have a root view controller at the end of application launch
If so, then your you problem could be due to changes in how the root view controller needs to be set up for iOS 6.
See here for info on how to address the problem.

A: Sorry if this is kinda late, but I have been working on something similar in my app. Honestly, I just used a simple switch method in order to change the map type. The code is below.
- (IBAction)toggle:(id)sender {

switch ([sender selectedSegmentIndex]) {
    case 0:
    {
        [self.mapView setMapType:MKMapTypeStandard];
    }break;
    case 1:
    {
        [self.mapView setMapType:MKMapTypeHybrid];
    }break;
    case 2:
    {
        [self.mapView setMapType:MKMapTypeSatellite];
    }break;
  }

}

Now I have not tried using this with multiple view controllers so this may only work with the one view controller. I just started programming on iOS so bear with me.. I'm gonna try to add the page curl effect to my app but all I have so far is a map view and a button that when it's pushed, zooms into the users location and the user is able to change the map type..
P.S. This is a Segmented Control set as a Value Changed action named "toggle" if that helps...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


With doors in public and private domains the trend for years now has been towards a flush finish. Doors that blend in seamlessly with the architecture are understated in terms of being a design element, thereby opening up a view of the entire room.
Simonswerk, the leading manufacturer of hinges and hinge systems for doors, windows, and gates, offers a complete range of products for flush doors in public and private domains. Taking as its motto "Not seeing anything is also design" the totally concealed "Tectus" hinge system, which has received numerous awards, integrates non-rebated doors in straight, flush spatial structures and is ideal as a discreet, restrained design element. On the back of this development particularly high-end doors are experiencing a boom. With their extraordinary veneers, wide range of colors and structures combined with a contemporary look they are like exclusive design objects.


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Get iTunes on iOS, Android, Mac, and Windows
Common Sense Age 18+
A love story set in the near future where single people, according to the rules of The City, are arrested and transferred to The Hotel. There they are obliged to find a matching mate in 45 days. If they fail, they are transformed into an animal of their choosing and released into The Woods. A desperate Man escapes from The Hotel to The Woods where The Loners live and falls in love, although it is against their rules.
Clip - Parents House
18+ COMMON SENSE
Sex, violence in mature romantic drama's dystopian future.
Ceci Dempsey
Ed Guiney
Lee Magiday
Efthymis Filippou
© 2015 Element Pictures/ Scarlet Films/ Faliro House Productions SA/ Haut et Court/ Lemming Film/ The British Film Institute/ Channel Four Television Corporation. All Rights Reserved
English (Stereo, Dolby 5.1)
Closed captions (CC) refer to subtitles in the available language with the addition of relevant non-dialogue information.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Foreign Service Flicks!
Updated 6 December 2020
From the Golden Age of Hollywood to today's digital streaming services, the Foreign Service has routinely served as a plot line on the Silver Screen. Unfortunately, we diplomats are usually portrayed as cocktail-sipping elitists, bumbling bureaucrats, or James Bond wannabes. But if you dig deep, you can find some real gems in the archives.
This list of Foreign Service Films and TV shows was first compiled by my amazing former boss, Leslie Bassett (ret), when she was DCM Seoul and later Ambassador to Paraguay. Her list first appeared in her awesome internal DOS leadership blog. A similar list later appeared in the Foreign Service Journal. I used them as the basis for my own list during the 2014-2015 TV season, which featured an unusual number of FS-related films -- most of them since cancelled.
This compilation includes films and television shows portraying the Foreign Service, the U.S. State Department, or diplomats in general. Most of the films on this list portray the U.S. Foreign Service, but some titles also cover the life and work of British, Canadian and other members of the international diplomatic community.
To qualify for our list, the Foreign Service must play a major plot point, or feature a key character who is a diplomat or employee of one of the various U.S. foreign service agencies. Or a character works for another government organization - real or fictional - who is somehow tied to an Embassy or Consulate (in government-speak, they are under Chief of Mission authority).
Many of the synopsis and movie posters below are from IMDB.com. Each synopsis is followed by an appropriate reference. Where none exists, the description was written by The Two Crabs. Our next goal is to watch or rewatch and review every flick here. If we missed any titles, please share! So with no further ado, we present:
The Two Crabs' Ultimate Compendium of Foreign Service Flicks
In chronological order by release date:
Espionage Agent (1939): When Barry Corvall discovers that his new bride is a possible enemy agent, he resigns from the diplomatic service to go undercover to route out an espionage ring planning to destroy American industrial capability. (IMDB)
Panama Patrol (1939): The head of the cipher bureau, Phillip Waring, is about to marry his secretary, Helen Lane, when he is informed that the State Department has discovered a message that must be decoded. With the information given, Waring and his assistant, Lieutenant Murdock, investigate but their every move seems to be known to their alien adversaries. Helen discovers that Arlie Johnson, interpreter for the bureau is the real leader of the spy ring but, before she can relay the information, she falls into the hands of Johnson and his spy-ring henchmen. (IMDB)
The Dippy Diplomat (1945): (Animated short) A newspaper announces that Ivan Awfulitch, the famous ambassador, is due to have a barbecue with local resident Wally Walrus. Unfortunately, while Wally is preparing the barbecue, the scent of the steaks he is cooking attracts an unwelcome guest in the form of Woody Woodpecker. Wally throws him out but when Woody hears of the visitor he is expecting, he dresses as Awfulitch himself and finally gets the remainder of Wally's food. (IMDB)
State Department — File 649 (1949): U.S. Foreign Service officer matches wits with a Chinese warlord to try to save American citizens threatened with execution. (IMDB). Note: This is probably one of the most well-known Foreign Service movies. The Foreign Service Journal recently wrote a detailed history of this underrated film, calling it an "our cinematic showcase."
Call Me Madam (1953): Washington hostess Sally Adams (Ethel Merman) becomes a Truman-era US ambassador to a European grand duchy. (IMDB)
Dream Wife (1953): Clemson Reade, a business tycoon with marriage on his mind, and Effie, a U.S. diplomat, are a modern couple. Unfortunately there seems to be too much business and not enough pleasure on the part of Effie. When Clemson meets Tarji, a princess trained in all the arts of pleasing men, he decides he wants an old fashioned girl. Princess Tarji's father is king of oil-rich Bukistan. Because of the oil situation and to maintain good political relations during the courtship between Clemson & Tarji, the State Department assigns a diplomat to maintain protocol until the wedding. Effie!" (IMDB)
"Blonde Bait" (1956): U.S. State Department agent Kent Foster, on the trail of a murderous traitor, Nick Randall, hopes to trap Randall through singer/stripper Angela Booth. The latter has promised to marry Randall on New Year's Eve, even though she is not to see him until then. However, she lands in prison. Foster arranges for her escape, with the aid of "Granny" Ramsey, in the hopes she will lead him to Randall. The plan is snarled and Angela slips away. She manages to meet Randall, and when he slaps her, she realizes that all she has heard about him is true. (IMDB)
The Ambassador's Daughter (1956): Joan Fisk, daughter of the American ambassador to France, is bored with entertaining the wives of visiting V.I.P.s and decides to conduct an experiment. She accepts a date with an American G.I. and tries to prove to her father and his friends that not all soldiers are wolves. But by the end of their first date, when wine, music and the young man's charms have swept her off her feet, she realizes that she may have won more than the bet. (IMDB)
The Barbarian and the Geisha (1958): Based on the real-life story of American diplomat Townsend Harris, it stars John Wayne as the Consul General to Japan in 1856 during the final years of the Tokugawa shogunate. The host nation locals and officials mistrust all foreigners, and the local governor refuses to accept Harris' diplomatic credentials. Eventually diplomacy wins out, and the Governor is so pleased that he gifts Harris a Geisha - who most certainly does not abide by U.S. Federal Government Rules on Gifts. The film was a rare flop by acclaimed filmmaker John Huston (The Maltese Falcon, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Prizzi's Honor).
The Ugly American (1963): An intelligent, articulate scholar, Harrison MacWhite (Marlon Brando), survives a hostile Senate confirmation hearing at the hands of conservatives to become ambassador to Sarkan, a southeast Asian country where civil war threatens a tense peace. Despite his knowledge, once he's there, MacWhite sees only a dichotomy between the U.S. and Communism. He can't accept that anti-American sentiment might be a longing for self-determination and nationalism. So, he breaks from his friend Deong, a local opposition leader, ignores a foreman's advice about slowing the building of a road, and tries to muscle ahead. What price must the country and his friends pay for him to get some sense? (IMDB)
Embassy (1972) - The poster alone makes me want to join the Foreign Service. And it stars Richard Roundtree, better known as Shaft. A Russian spy penetrates into the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon to try to kill a Soviet defector under asylum there.
The Tamarind Seed (1974): While on holiday in Barbados to recover from the lingering effects of a love affair that ended badly, Judith Farrow (Julie Andrews) meets Feodor Sverdlov (Omar Sharif), a handsome Russian. They find pleasure in each other's company as they visit colorful places on the island, but there are complications to their budding romance after their holiday in the tropical paradise comes to an end. Problems arise due to geopolitical concerns of the Cold War, for Judith is the assistant to an important minister serving in the British Home Office in London, and Feodor is the Soviet air attaché assigned in Paris to Soviet General Golitsyn. British intelligence officer, Jack Loder, suspects the Sverdlov is attempting to recruit Judith to work as a Soviet spy, and this is in fact what Feodor tells his boss that he is attempting to accomplish. Feodor tells Judith that this is a way for him to be able to see her without bringing about suspicion from his people. Due to somewhat similar thinking on the British side, she is encouraged to see him as well. Loder is attempting to discover the identity of an undercover Soviet agent that has been sending confidential reports to Moscow. Soon he also is told to help a Soviet agent who wishes to defect to the West. (IMDB)
The Wind and the Lion (1975): Loosely based on the real-life Perdicaris incident of 1904, The Wind and the Lion featured an A-list cast of the time including Sean Connery, Candace Bergen, Brian Keith, and John Huston as Secretary of State John Hay. Bergen plays Eden Pedecaris, an American expat living in Morocco. She and her two children are kidnapped by a Berber rebel leader (Connery). After the American Consul to Tangier is unable to secure the release of the AmCits, President Teddy Roosevelt politicizes the event and deploys the Navy to rescue the Americans. The film was nominated for two music Oscars. It was written and directed by John Milius, best known as the screenwriter of Apocalypse Now and Red Dawn.
Water (1975): Comedy-adventure flick starring the suave Michael Cain as a British diplomat to a West Indian island nation finds his idyllic existence thrown into chaos when a large American drilling company finds a huge source of natural mineral water there.
The Omen (1976; remade 2006): A U.S. diplomat (Gregory Peck) and his wife Katherine (Lee Remick) adopt the infant Damien in Rome, then find out he's the Antichrist! When the diplomat becomes U.S. Ambassador to the UK, things go from bad to worse as seemingly everyone around Damien mysteriously dies. One of the scariest horror movies ever that spawned numerous bad sequels and copy-cats.
Midnight Express (1978): Billy Hayes is caught attempting to smuggle drugs out of Turkey. The Turkish courts decide to make an example of him, sentencing him to more than 30 years in prison. While his family attempt to seek his release through legal and diplomatic channels, a fellow inmate tells him the only way out is the "midnight express," meaning to escape. (IMDB)
Caravans (1978): In 1948, at the U.S. embassy in Zadestan, a young diplomat is ordered to find the missing daughter of an influential U.S. Senator. It stars Anthony Quinn and based on a novel of the same name. (IMDB)
Missing (1982): Starring Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek and based on the real-life experiences of Ed Horman, this is the story of an American father of conservative background who comes to a South American country to search for his missing son, a journalist. Ed joins with his daughter-in-law Beth, who like her husband is politically polarized from the father, in prying through the bureaucracy and dangerous political intrigue in search of their son and husband. Little by little, the father comes to realize that his own beloved government is not telling him the truth. (IMDB)
Who Dares, Wins (1982): When SAS Captain Peter Skellen is thrown out of the service for gross misconduct due to unnecessary violence and bullying, he is soon recruited by The People's Lobby, a fanatical group aiming to hold several US dignitaries hostage. But Skellen's dismissal is a front to enable him to get close to the terrorist group. Can he get close enough to stop the Lobby from creating an international incident? (IMDB)
The Ambassador (1984): Robert Mitchum plays a controversial U.S. ambassador to Israel who tries to solve the Palestinian Question while being criticized by all factions, which takes a turn when his wife begins having an affair with a PLO chief. Rock Hudson (in his last theatrical movie role) plays Mitchum's chief security officer who saves his life in an assassination attempt and tries to help him resolve the conflicts around them. (IMDB)
Protocol (1984): The US needs to convince the visiting emir Khala'ad of Othar to allow an American military base in his strategic realm. Clueless nightclub waitress Sunny Ann Davis (Goldie Hawn) accidentally spots and stops a terrorist shooting at the president and his royal guest. Her naive comments charm the press, so the State Department recruits her for its Protocol. She falls in love with charming Middle East desk chief Michael Ransome, who rather resigns then help trick her into a 'contact mission' to Othar, where the emir's plan with her unexpectedly stirs a revolution. (IMDB)
Spies Like Us (1985): A classic John Landis 80s flick starring Chevy Chase as Emmitt Fitz-Hume, a State Department civil servant Information Officer (IO) from a Foreign Service legacy family, and Dan Akroyd as Austin Milbarge, a DIA code breaker. The film begins with the two hapless heroes taking the Foreign Service Written Exam in hopes of moving up the DOS ladder. They get caught cheating on the FSWE and end up as expendable decoys on an intelligence operation. Zany antics abound. Trivia: Dan Akroyd's love interest is his real-life wife.
Lethal Weapon 2 (1989): South Africa's Foreign Service plays a starring role in this action flick, and not in a good light. It was one of the last Hollywood films to tackle the issue of Apartheid before the system collapsed a few years later. The story follows an evil South African Chief of Mission and his lackey diplomats use the cover of diplomatic immunity to engage in criminal activities. Our heroes Detectives Riggs (Mel Gibson) and Murtaugh (Danny Glover) likewise break every Geneva Convention in the book in their pursuit of the bad guys. The plot thickens when Riggs (Mel Gibson) falls for the Consulate's OMS. Riggs eventually revokes the henchman's diplomatic immunity in a creative fashion, giving new meaning to the phrase, "persona non grata."
Visas and Virtue (1997): Winner of the 1998 Academy Award for Best Short Film. Haunted by the sight of hundreds of Jewish refugees outside the consulate gates, a Japanese diplomat and his wife, stationed in Kaunas, Lithuania at the beginning of World War II, must decide how much they are willing to risk. Inspired by a true story, VISAS AND VIRTUE explores the moral and professional dilemmas that Consul General Chiune "Sempo" Sugihara faces in making a life or death decision: defy his own government's direct orders and risk his career, by issuing live-saving transit visas, or obey orders and turn his back on humanity. (IMDB).
Four Days in September (1997): A Brazilian film about urban guerrilla fighters who kidnap the American Ambassador. Now, the diplomat's life hangs in the balance - helplessly caught between a government unwilling to cooperate - and his fear of the captors themselves. The film stars Alan Arkin, who also appeared in one of the best films on this list, "Argo." (IMDB).
Diplomatic Siege (1999): B-list film starring formerly A-list actors like Darryl Hannah, Tom Berenger and Peter Weller. When Serbian terrorists take over U.S. Embassy Bucharest, Romania, they threaten to execute one hostage per hour unless their demands are met. There is a ridiculous side plot involving nuclear weapons stored in the embassy basement!
Rules of Engagement (2000): Action / courtroom drama about a military JAG attorney (Tommy Lee Jones) who must defend an officer (Samuel L. Jackson) on trial for ordering his troops to fire on civilians after they stormed a U.S. Embassy in a Middle Eastern country. (IMDB)
Mexico City (2000): After divorce and the death of her two children, Mitch is headed for Oaxaca with her brother Sam, a photographer. During their one-day layover in Mexico City, Sam goes out for a night on the town and doesn't return. Mitch goes for help to the American embassy and starts her own search with the aid of Pedro, a cabbie. (IMDB)
The American Embassy (2002): A short-lived Fox television teen angst series that only lasted about 6 episodes. It stars Arija Bareikis as Emma Brody first-tour consular officer at US Embassy London. Emma is young, single and beautiful woman who joins the Foreign Service to escape from her cheating boyfriend and dysfunctional family in Toledo (never a good enough reason to join the FS!) In London, she squares off with her colleagues and superiors in dealing with various political cases. Unfortunately, the show has never been released on video or streaming service, but you can find bootlegs online. Episode 2 - and ONLY Episode 2 - can be found on YouTube. Takeaways from Episode 2: never mail "toys" via diplomatic pouch, don't discuss classified information in the Embassy lobby or London streets; and hire a dozen EEO officers...STAT!
The Bourne Identity (2002): It's a stretch to call "The Bourne Identity" a Foreign Service film, but I'm including it here because 1) we've received multiple requests that it deserves recognition, 2) it's a fracking AWESOME film and 3) it features a key scene that is single-handedly responsible for perpetuating the Hollywood myth of U.S. Embassies abroad, complete with obligatory rude consular officer and a platoon of heavily-armed Marines. In this alternate universe there exists a U.S. Embassy in Zurich (it's actually in Bern), and U.S. citizens can enter a U.S. embassy without an appointment or security screening simply by declaring, "I'm an American." And don't think we missed the fact that Jason's name in his fake Russian passport is complete gibberish that literally reads "Lshtshfum, Ashef"!
I Witness (2003): Jim Rhodes is a human rights worker in Tijuana for a few days to make sure that union elections are fair at a maquiladora owned by a U.S. corporation. In quick succession, the police assault the strikers, the bodies of 27 peasants turn up in an abandoned tunnel that has caved in, and two U.S. teen bikers are missing. As Rhodes pokes around and speculates on connections among these events, he's beaten up, warned off by a drug dealer's attorney, and given varying degrees of help by the U.S. State Department rep, the U.S. Trade rep, and an honest local cop. It's always about money, but whose is at stake and how cheap is Rhodes's life? (IMDB)
The Constant Gardener (2005): Mild-mannered British diplomat Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes) is assigned to British Embassy in Kenya. He is accompanied by his wife, Tessa (Rachel Weisz). After Tessa is murdered, Quayle After his wife is murdered in Kenya, Justin, with a passion for gardening, decides to uncover the truth behind the death of his wife - with no regards for the consequences.
The White Countess (2005): Set in 1930s Shanghai, where a blind American diplomat (Ralph Fiennes, in his second role as a diplomat) develops a curious relationship with a young Russian refugee who works odd -- and sometimes illicit -- jobs to support members of her dead husband's aristocratic family. (IMDB)
American Visa (2005): Bolivian film. After being denied an American visa, a Bolivian professor becomes involved in a web of criminal activities, holds-up the American consulate and falls for a beautiful prostitute from the Bolivian lowlands. (IMDB)
Cooking with Stella (2009): A warmhearted social satire about a Canadian diplomat and her chef husband who are posted to New Delhi. Upon arrival they inherit a household of Indian servants headed by the charming, totally inspiring – and wily -cook, Stella (Seema Biswas). When Stella agrees to become Michael's cooking guru and to teach him traditional Indian dishes, little does he know that she's cooking up a scheme of her own. (IMDB)
Julie & Julia (2009): Based on a true story of the Foreign Service's most famous EFM, Julia Child (Meryl Streep) is the wife of a diplomat assigned to a 4-year posting at US Embassy Paris. Looking for ways to pass her time, Julia takes cooking lessons at the Cordon Bleu, where she discovers her true passion. The film time travels between Julia's story and that of young writer Julie Powell (Amy Adams). Underemployed with an unpublished novel, Julie decides to cook her way through Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" in a year and to blog about it. We go back and forth between these stories of two women learning to cook and finding success. Sympathetic, loving husbands support them both, and friendships, too, add zest.
The Diplomat (2009): A British diplomat is arrested on charges of working with Russian mafia. After death threats to his wife, they are taken into protective custody. Then the MI6 shows up with a new piece of the puzzle. (IMDB)
In The Loop (2009): A political satire about a group of skeptical American and British operatives and diplomats attempting to prevent a war between two countries. Diplomatic relations between the U.S. and U.K. collide with White House and Downing Street warmongers. Features a bit role by James Gandolfini as a U.S. General trying to keep the peacemaker. (IMDB)
From Paris with Love (2010): Awful, implausible action thriller starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers as James, an ambitious aide to the U.S. Ambassador in Paris, yet moonlighting for the CIA. On the night he and his girlfriend become engaged, he's assigned to serve as driver/control officer for Charlie Wax, an unorthodox government employee played by John Travolta. James learns that a terrorist cell is preparing to attack the American delegation. The two embark on a wild ride to save the day.
The Ambassador (2011): Danish journalist Mads Brügger goes undercover as a Liberian Ambassador to embark on a dangerous yet hysterical journey to uncover the blood diamond trade in Africa. (IMDB)
Homeland (2011 - 2020): Emmy-winning spy thriller TV series starring Claire Danes, and loosely based on an Israeli TV series, "Prisoners of War." Although the series is mainly about the CIA, many of the episodes feature State Department plot-lines. Season 4 takes place almost entirely at U.S. Embassy Kabul and U.S. Embassy Islamabad, where Carrie (Danes) is assigned. I personally thought the earlier seasons were better, and stopped watching after Season 4. But YMMV.
Argo (2012): Winner of the 2013 Academy Award for Best Picture, Argo is based on a true story. In 1979, Iranian militants stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in November 1979, taking 56 American diplomats hostage. Six American from the consulate section manage to escape and take refuge in the home of Canadian Ambassador Ken Taylor. With few options remaining, CIA exfiltration expert Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) devices a daring plan to create a phony sci-fi film project called "Argo," visit Iran to supposedly scout filming locations, and smuggle out the Americans as part of the production crew. This film introduced a whole new generation to the work of the U.S. diplomats and the real dangers of life in the Foreign Service.
Get the Gringo (2012): Mel Gibson is a career criminal serving as a prison sentence in Mexico who comes to the attention of a U.S. Consular officer after a series of incidents. Gibson later assumes the identity of the consular officer to break into a prison, for reasons that would be a spoiler alert. (IMDB / Wikipedia)
Pulling Strings / Amor A Primera Visa (2013): This Rom-Com stars Laura Ramsey as a young, Type-A consular officer at US Embassy Mexico City who is focused on nothing but climbing the Foreign Service ladder. She throws herself a goodbye party to celebrate her assignment to US Embassy London (nice link if you can get it). But after a night of heavy drinking, she gets drunk and passes out on the street (Hello? RSO?). She's rescued by a Alejandro, a mariachi singer whom she had denied for a visa the previous day. Breaking nearly every State Department rule in the process, Laura falls in love with her visa client. What could possible go wrong!?! In Spanish-speaking countries, the film was more appropriately titled, "Amor A Primera Visa" - a word play on 'Love at First Sight'.
Blue Jasmine (2013): Directed by Woody Allen, the film follows Cate Blanchett as Jasmine, a ruined, mentally troubled New York socialite. After her fall from grace, she hooks up with diplomat Dwight (Peter Sarsgaard), who Jasmine believes will help her social position. The film makes FSOs appear to be fabulously rich and have months of leave for R&R in California and fancy cocktail parties in Vienna.
The Ambassadors (2013): A BBC television comedy starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb as two hapless British diplomats in the fictional republic of Tazbekistan. Appears to have only lasted three episodes. (BBC)
Madame Secretary (2014): MADAM SECRETARY stars Tèa Leoni as Elizabeth McCord, the shrewd, determined, newly appointed Secretary of State who drives international diplomacy, battles office politics and circumvents protocol as she negotiates global and domestic issues, both at the White House and at home. A college professor and a brilliant former CIA analyst who left for ethical reasons, Elizabeth returns to public life at the request of the President following the suspicious death of her predecessor. The President values her apolitical leanings, her deep knowledge of the Middle East, her flair for languages and her ability to not just think outside the box, but to not even acknowledge there is a box. McCord's team includes her Chief of Staff Nadine Tolliver, speechwriter Matt Mahoney, press coordinator Daisy Grant and her charming assistant Blake Moran. When McCord debates third world problems, finesses foreign dignitaries at work and does battle with the President's combative Chief of Staff Russell Jackson, it's just a warm-up for when she goes home to her supportive husband, Henry, and their two bright children, where "politics" and "compromise" take on new meaning. (CBS)
The Embassy (2014): Australian reality show following the real work of consular officers at the Australian Embassy in Bangkok. Although the producers have taken some slight over-dramatic licenses, "The Embassy" realistically portrays life and work of consular officers and the help they provide to their citizens. Having worked in American Citizen Services (ACS), I can attest the work of our Aussie counterparts closely mirrors the work of U.S. consular officers. The first full episode of "The Embassy" is available on YouTube. Subsequent episodes are only available on Australia's Channel Nine website, which can be viewed using a VPN.
Jeg er aambassadøren fra Amerika (The American Ambassador) (2014-2016) - Another reality show, this time following the daily life of real-life U.S. Ambassador to Denmark, Rufus Gifford. Amb. Gifford was a political appointee and former finance director for President Obama's reelection campaign. The show even won Denmark's equivalent of the Emmy Award, and was written up in Vanity Fair. Apparently it was on Netflix for a while but seems to have vanished. If anyone knows where old episodes can be found, let me know!
Survivor (2015) - A Foreign Service Officer in London tries to prevent a terrorist attack set in New York, but is forced to go on the run after she is framed for crimes she didn't commit. The A-list cast stars Dylan McDermott and Milla Jovovich and directed by James McTeigue.
The Brink (2015) - HBO series described as a "dark geopolitical comedy" starred Tim Robbins as the Secretary of State, and Jack Black as a "lowly Foreign Service Officer" assigned to U.S. Embassy Islamabad, and John Larroquette as the evangelical Ambassador. Cancelled after just 1 season.
The Diplomat - An HBO documentary film about the life and work of Amb. Richard Holbrooke, from Vietnam to Afghanistan. Official website: www.thediplomatfilm.com
Diplomats (2015 - In turnaround) - A comedy film based on Dennis Rodman's "basketball diplomacy" trips to North Korea. Was announced in 2015 but apparently never filmed. Was to have been directed by "Barbershop" and "Fantastic Four" director Tim Story
Stanistan (2015) - A show about a Press Officer at a US Embassy compound in the Middle East. The show was cancelled before the pilot ever aired. Having worked as a press officer in Afghanistan, I'm thoroughly disappointed "Stanistan" never became reality.
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (2016) - Action movie directed by Michael Bay follows the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya. Horrible film, historically inaccurate, and -- just like the events of Benghazi -- completely politicized. It's pretty clear where Michael Bay's politics lay.
Jarhead 3: The Siege (2016) - A direct-to-video movie that is essentially a ripoff of the aforementioned "13 Hours", a group of Marines must protect a US Embassy in the Middle East when it suddenly comes under attack from enemy forces.
Mad Dogs (2016) - The plot to this Amazon Prime series loosely based on a British show of the same name just screams SCS (Special Citizen Services). A group of 40-something unhappy men behaving badly in Belize. Of course, their problems become US Embassy Belize's problems. Cancelled after one season; perhaps the filmmakers couldn't pay back their repat loans.
Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders (2016 - 2017) - In one of the more ridiculous premises on this list, this "Criminal Minds" spinoff series follows the exploits of the the International Response Team - a fictional FBI unit tasked with rescuing U.S. citizens abroad. The few episodes we watched were predictable: An American overseas is arrested, threatened or set up with a crime they didn't commit; the Embassy is powerless or too inept to assist, so it's IRT to the rescue. The only Embassy office that was usually portrayed in a positive light is Diplomatic Security. Even Gary Sinise couldn't save this turkey - the show was cancelled after just two seasons of poor reviews and ratings.
Inside the American Embassy (2018) - Documentary-style reality show about the inner workings of U.S. Embassy London and "Trump's man in Britain," Ambassador Woody Johnson, described by UK Channel 4 as, "a billionaire, close personal friend of Donald Trump." I watched the second episode which focused on consular operations, even saw a few people I recognized, and was quite shocked at the access the filmmakers were allowed (a little to much). The four-episode docu-series can be found on the Channel 4 website, however you need to use a VPN connected to a UK server, and register for a free account on Channel 4, with a UK mailing address (just make one up, it works fine).
Long Shot (2019) - Hilarious Rom-Com starring the lovely Charlize Theron as "S" - the Secretary of State who is running for President in 2020. Seth Rogan, as his usual lovable stoner self, plays a journalist who becomes her speechwriter. FS folks will appreciate several inside DOS/USG jokes. Anyone who has ever served as a control officer for an "S" visit will truly appreciate this film (or trigger nightmares!) Sadly, this movie was badly marketed and the trailers and posters really did the film injustice. It's definitely worth a watch!
Good Omens (2019) - An angel and a demon must work to stop Armageddon, brought upon in the form of the Antichrist - who may or may not be the son of a U.S. Diplomat in London! Based on the book. From BBC and available on AmazonPrime. Best quote from EP1: "An American diplomat? REALLY? As if Armageddon were a cinematographic show you wished to sell in as many countries as possible." Great cast starring David Tennant, Michael Sheen, and Frances McDormand as God.
Fast & Furious franchise (2011 - current): How Hollywood has managed to drag out this story for 20 years and 8 films is beyond my comprehension. Since 2011's "Fast Five," the series has co-starred Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as Luke Hobbs, who plays a Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) agent. Why a DS agent is investing car thefts is whole other story. The 2019 spin-off film, "Hobbs & Shaw" was actually quite entertaining and a nice change of pace from the rest of the films (only two of which I've seen).
Christmas in Vienna (2020) - The Two Crabs have a confession: We love cheezy Hallmark Christmas movies. Sorry not sorry! As we are now based in Vienna so we were excited to hear this year's Hallmark Xmas season featured a movie set in Vienna. But we were completely floored to later learn that it was a FOREIGN SERVICE film! Brennan Elliott plays a "Minister Counselor" at U.S. Embassy Vienna, and somehow lives in a palace larger than most Chief of Mission residences. He's also managed to serve in only 0% differential posts with a follow-on assignment to that Hollywood favorite, the nonexistent "U.S. Embassy Zurich!" Like most Hallmark films, it features a predictable plot and mostly unknown actors, but it's one of the better Hallmark flicks.
Posted at 04:54 in Film, Foreign Service, Television | Permalink | Comments (11)
Tags: diplomacy, diplomats, embassy, film, Foreign Service, Foreign Service Films, Hollywood, madame secretary, movies, silver screen, television, TV
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On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his "I Have A Dream" speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
I share this video every year, but this year King's words carry more weight than ever. The content of ones character has never seemed more significant.


text:
Rice to Visit Mideast Next Week, Passing Up ASEAN Forum
The State Department confirmed Tuesday that because of Middle East travel plans, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will not attend next week's regional forum with leaders of Southeast Asian countries in Manila. Rice will send her deputy, John Negroponte, to the ASEAN dialogue. VOA's David Gollust reports from the State Department.
Attending the dialogue with the foreign ministers of ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, has been a mid-summer tradition for U.S. secretaries of state in recent years.
But the State Department says Rice will miss the ASEAN regional forum for the second time in three years because of the urgency of her planned mission to the Middle East, partly in tandem with Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
President Bush ordered the unusual joint mission earlier this month in an effort to shore up Arab support for Iraq's besieged government, and to try to generate momentum in Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts following the seizure of the Gaza Strip by the radical Hamas movement.
State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack confirmed Rice's plans at a news briefing, saying she will spend most of next week in the Middle East while sending Deputy Secretary Negroponte to the Manila meetings August 1 and 2.
Rice scrubbed a planned visit to Africa last week because of Middle East consultations in Washington, and her decision to pass up the ASEAN meeting has already prompted editorial criticism and expressions of disappointment in the region.
McCormack said Rice regrets having to alter her travel plans to both regions but that attending to pressing problems in the Middle East is in the interests of the entire world community.
"It's certainly is not intended in any way to diminish our regard for the nations of those two regions, Africa or Southeast Asia," he said. "But sometimes you have to make difficult calls in terms of where, at a particular moment, you focus your attentions. And that's what the Secretary intends to do. She fully expects to travel to Africa and be able to spend some quality time in each of those stops. And I fully expect that she's going to be traveling Southeast Asia sometime between now and the end of her tenure as secretary of state."
Rice and Gates will meet in the Egyptian Sinai resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh with the foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan and the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries and go on to meet Saudi Arabian officials in Jeddah.
They will urge more active support by the Sunni-Muslim Arab states for Iraq's Shiite-led coalition government and also push for more Arab engagement in Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts.
Administration officials hope moderate Arabs, including those that do not have formal relations with Israel, will attend a conference with Israeli and Palestinian leaders being organized by the United States later this year.
After the visit to Jeddah, Rice will part company with Gates and visit Jerusalem and Ramallah for talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Meanwhile Negroponte, a former U.S. ambassador to Manila, will hold talks with senior officials of the Philippines in addition to the ASEAN meetings, and will go on to Tokyo for similar consultations.
Palestinian Security Chief Resigns
The chief of Palestinian security has resigned, six weeks after the Islamic militant group Hamas overtook his forces in the Gaza Strip. The Fatah faction's national security adviser, Mohammed Dahlan, submitted his resignation to President Mahmoud Abbas Thursday. Palestinian authorities say Mr. Abbas, leader of the Fatah movement, accepted the request. Dahlan cited health reasons for his decision. But officials say a government committee pushed for Dahlan&…
Arab Foreign Ministers Visit Israel
The foreign ministers of Egypt and Jordan held talks in Jerusalem with Israeli leaders on Wednesday. It was the first-ever visit to Israel by leaders representing the Arab League. VOA's Jim Teeple reports from Jerusalem that Israel's relations with the Palestinians were at the top of the agenda of the talks. The Jordanian and Egyptian foreign ministers came to Jerusalem to discuss the Arab League Peace Plan, first proposed in 2002 by Saudi Arabia…
Rising Instability in the Middle East
Many analysts note that the United States has embarked on a vigorous diplomatic strategy of isolating Iran, as the Middle East's strategic balance has begun to tilt toward Teheran. They say a key part of the new diplomatic effort is building a regional anti-Iranian coalition, which would include Sunni Arab states and Israel. What are the difficulties of forming such an alliance in the volatile region? During their recent joint visit to the Middle…


This series of pencil drawings, entitled The Ne'er-Do-Wells, are based on the mugshots of common thieves, pickpockets, and safe breakers from the early 20th century and the freak reincarnation that they find themselves in now. The animals in each of the drawings represent the positive and negative aspects of the natural and supernatural world. They act as guardians and protectors or they can represent something harmful, dangerous or even deceiving to each of these men.
After taking a Modernist art course during a study abroad program at Manchester Metropolitan University in 1995, I changed my focus from literature to art and received an MA in Studio Arts from New York University in 2000. Since 2002, I've been working as a teaching artist for people with autism at Autism Services, Inc. where I've had the unique opportunity to work side by side with many instinctually driven artists and have been able to curate over fifty exhibitions of their work throughout the Western New York region, including the 2015 three person T-Shirt On TV exhibition at Big Orbit Gallery. In 2008, I wrote and recorded a full length album of original music for a project called Here Come the Comets. The album won best album of the year by Buffalo Spree and the material was performed live at the Burchfield Penny Art Center in November of 2010. From 2011-2014, I began writing and recording original sound designs for a number of Torn Space Theater productions including the site specific Procession, written and directed by Dan Shanahan and A Clockwork Orange, directed by David Oliver, which won an Artie Award for best production. After many years of abstract painting, I changed my focus to pencil drawing in the beginning of 2014.


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By the popular vote of Bruce Park TC members, the following two designs have been adjudged the winners of the t-shirt design competition.
Thanks and congratulations to Carra Morrison for providing both designs.
Shirts of different sizes will be provided in the clubrooms over the coming weeks and details on how to order to follow.
Thanks also to all who participated by contributing designs and voting.
Looking forward to seeing as many members as possible sporting the new uniform!


text:
Subscribe to frozen vegetables
Experts create models to assess Listeria risks in some foods
By Joe Whitworth on November 25, 2022
Scientists have developed formal risk assessment models for Listeria monocytogenes in certain foods.
The models need to be tested and reviewed before being made public, said experts at a meeting organized by the World Health…
Continue Reading Experts create models to assess Listeria risks in some foods
Study finds deli meat is connected to more than 90 percent of U.S. listeria cases
By News Desk on October 24, 2022
According to a new study recently published in the International Journal of Food Microbiology, over 90 percent of listeriosis cases in the U.S. come from deli meat, followed by ready-to-eat (RTE) salads at just less…
Continue Reading Study finds deli meat is connected to more than 90 percent of U.S. listeria cases
People urged to cook frozen fruit and vegetables because of Listeria findings
By Joe Whitworth on May 21, 2022
Listeria monocytogenes has been detected in a number of frozen vegetables tested in Ireland.
The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) said findings show a potential risk of illness for consumers who have non-ready-to-eat (RTE)…
Continue Reading People urged to cook frozen fruit and vegetables because of Listeria findings
Hungary seeks data on consumers' habits with frozen vegetables
By News Desk on March 10, 2022
Hungary's food agency has launched a survey to find out more on people's habits related to quick-frozen vegetables.
The National Food Chain Safety Office (Nébih) said it would provide the authority with a picture of…
Continue Reading Hungary seeks data on consumers' habits with frozen vegetables
Giant Eagle recalls frozen bags of diced green peppers after testing finds Listeria
Giant Eagle Inc. of Pittsburgh, PA, is recalling frozen bags of Giant Eagle diced green peppers because the product tested positive for Listeria monocytogenes.
The product was distributed to Giant Supermarkets in Maryland, Pennsylvania, West …
Continue Reading Giant Eagle recalls frozen bags of diced green peppers after testing finds Listeria
Publisher's Platform: Eh? Kimchi with E. coli O157:H7 and corn with Salmonella in Canada?
As of January 28, there have been 14 laboratory-confirmed cases of E. coli O157 illness linked to this outbreak in the following provinces: Alberta (13) and Saskatchewan (1). Individuals became sick between early December 2021…
Continue Reading Publisher's Platform: Eh? Kimchi with E. coli O157:H7 and corn with Salmonella in Canada?
More people sick in Canada in ongoing Salmonella outbreak linked to corn
By Coral Beach on January 29, 2022
Illnesses continue to be added to a tally of people in Canada who have been sickened in a Salmonella Enteritidis outbreak tied to frozen corn.
The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) reports that there…
Continue Reading More people sick in Canada in ongoing Salmonella outbreak linked to corn
Frozen corn recalled in Canada; may be linked to foodborne illness outbreak
By News Desk on December 14, 2021
Canadian officials are reporting a recall of frozen corn that is part of a Salmonella outbreak investigation, but no other details on the outbreak are posted.
The recall, made by New Alasko Limited Partnership for…
Continue Reading Frozen corn recalled in Canada; may be linked to foodborne illness outbreak
Product photograph provided by company.
Conagra recalls Birds Eye tots because of consumer complaints of injuries
By News Desk on November 26, 2021
Reports of injuries have led Conagra Brands to recall certain lots of frozen Birds Eye broccoli tots because of small rocks and metal fragments in the product.
"Conagra has received two reports to date of…
Continue Reading Conagra recalls Birds Eye tots because of consumer complaints of injuries
Photograph provided by company.
Test shows imported cauliflower positive for Listeria; recall initiated
An Idaho company is recalling an unrevealed number of cases of certain frozen, imported cauliflower because testing showed it to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.
The TJ Farms Select brand cauliflower was imported from China.
Continue Reading Test shows imported cauliflower positive for Listeria; recall initiated


text:
Third Coast Conference: Are journalism and storytelling "frenemies?"
A dispatch from a panel discussion on ethics
@bartona104
99% Invisible Andrea Silenzi Brooke Gladstone Joe Richman On the Media Radio Diaries Roman Mars Slate Third Coast International Audio Festival
Editor's Note: Every other fall, hundreds of radio producers, journalists, documentarians and other audio artists gather in Chicago for the Third Coast conference to examine, explore and celebrate the world of audio storytelling. In the first of a series of dispatches from the 2014 conference, which took place last week, radio producer Julia Barton writes about a panel discussion on the question of where storytelling and journalism meet– and collide– in audio.
The session, called "Journalism and Storytelling: Frenemies?," featured moderator Joe Richman, founder and producer of Radio Diaries, which gives people tape recorders to report their own lives; Brooke Gladstone, the co-host and managing editor of the public radio program "On the Media;" Roman Mars, host and creator of the podcast "99% Invisible;" and Andrea Silenzi, senior producer of Slate's daily news show, "The Gist," and host of the radio program "Why Oh Why?".
Part of what makes the Third Coast International Audio Festival so intense, I've come to believe, is the lonely nature of life as an audio producer. Much of the world doesn't understand the basics of what happens between our headphones and computer screens, and that creates a haze of silence around the professional decisions we have to make every day.
Many of those decisions have to do with interview tape: what to keep, what to remove, and how to balance the needs of a story's framework while remaining honest to people who have trusted us with their voices.
So it's a relief to be in a room full of people who "get" these problems—problems which are at their core ethical. Radio Diaries producer Joe Richman started off the festival with a lively discussion of ethics, although he and the other panelists all agreed that "codes of behavior" is perhaps a better term for what audio producers need to develop.
It was fascinating to hear where people draw the line in their own work. "On the Media" co-host and managing editor Brooke Gladstone will cut and re-arrange an interview for length and clarity, and she's a vicious excisor of "ums" and pauses (disclosure: I temped once as a producer at "On the Media"). But she'll never insert a pause to slow an interview down.
"A pause suggests emotional moment," Gladstone said. "To put one in would be like putting a word in the mouth of the person."
But each story comes with its own set of dilemmas. In his "Radio Diaries" documentary series on Nelson Mandela, Richman included an interview about curfews in apartheid South Africa. At the sound of an evening bell, blacks knew they had to get off the streets. Richman found a 1940s record of church bells in Johannesburg to mix under the moment when the interviewee recalled the sound of the bell.
"You shouldn't cheat, you shouldn't take shortcuts," Richman said. "Still, what if all I could find were bells from 1950s in Durban? Or Nigeria? Or Poughkeepsie?" In other words, when would the audio demands of the story lead us too far astray?
"He's going 'bong bong bong,' and if you didn't have 'bongs' in there, you'd go crazy!" Gladstone exclaimed. But "the closer you can get to his situation is best. That's your goal as a documentarian."
"Poughkeepsie is too far," "99% Invisible" host Roman Mars said. "That is your limit."
What made this panel especially useful (and not a bloated discussion of ethics in audio journalism) was its nod to producers who inhabit a still-murky creative realm between audio fiction and verité. We tend to trust that voices we hear on the radio are who they say they are, but some producers like to play with that assumption.
In addition to producing Slate's "The Gist," Andrea Silenzi produces a live program and podcast "Why Oh Why?" at WFMU, a freewheeling, all-volunteer station in New Jersey. Silenzi played a moment with a recurring guest on her show named Randy. At Silenzi's request, Randy sized her up as a possible date: "You are a little stumpy," he declares. "But you have a clean, rural smell." Randy's so creatively obnoxious that some suspect he's an acted character rather than a "real" person. But Silenzi won't say whether he's real or not.
Gladstone was not sure she liked that. "It's possible to have a relationship with your audience where things are ambiguous," she told Silenzi. "But if the energy is dependent on the authenticity, then that might be a violation [of trust]."
But for Silenzi—at least in the context of "Why Oh Why?"—toying with authenticity is part of a new media literacy that can be pleasurable. "I think people do know to ask, 'Is it real?' now with the Internet," she said. "It's this fun process where you imagine if it's real and then ask whether it's not."
And artifice is baked into what we do anyway, said Roman Mars. "When you introduce microphones to real world, it becomes inauthentic. The craft is working back to making it feel real again."
Julia Barton is a longtime public media editor, working with "Life of the Law," American Public Media, "99% Invisible," and individual producers. She's also been the managing editor of Radiotopia, a podcast collective from PRX. Barton's reporting has appeared on "Radiolab," "99% Invisible," "Studio 360," PRI's "The World," and other programs. She lives in Brooklyn in life, online at juliabarton.com.
Annotation Tuesday: Jonathan Goldstein and The Little Mermaid
Audio Danger: Radio storytelling and the perils of digital permanence
By Julia Barton
Audio danger: Going live
Show comments / Leave a commentHide comments


text:
// Licensed to the .NET Foundation under one or more agreements.
// The .NET Foundation licenses this file to you under the MIT license.
// See the LICENSE file in the project root for more information.

namespace System.Text.Json.Serialization.Converters
{
    internal sealed class JsonConverterInt32 : JsonConverter<int>
    {
        public override int Read(ref Utf8JsonReader reader, Type typeToConvert, JsonSerializerOptions options)
        {
            return reader.GetInt32();
        }

        public override void Write(Utf8JsonWriter writer, int value, JsonSerializerOptions options)
        {
            writer.WriteNumberValue(value);
        }
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Q: Android: Clickable piechart I need a piechart for my App to display some data in different sections.
the piechart is ready and it also works fine but i need a clickable event when touched on a particular section in pie chart .Please let me know the code
Thanks in advance.
this is my android code
  public class PieActivity extends Activity
{
/** Called when the activity is first created. */
float values[]={300,700,100,500};

@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)
{
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.main);
    LinearLayout linear=(LinearLayout) findViewById(R.id.linear);
    values=calculateData(values);
    linear.addView(new MyGraphview(this,values));

}
private float[] calculateData(float[] data)
{
    // TODO Auto-generated method stub
    float total=0;
    for(int i=0;i<data.length;i++)
    {
        total+=data[i];
    }
    for(int i=0;i<data.length;i++)
    {
    data[i]=360*(data[i]/total);
    }
    return data;

}
public class MyGraphview extends View
{
    private Paint paint=new Paint(Paint.ANTI_ALIAS_FLAG);
    private float[] value_degree;
    private int[] COLORS={Color.BLUE,Color.GREEN,Color.GRAY,Color.CYAN,Color.RED};
    RectF rectf = new RectF (10, 10, 200, 200);
    int temp=0;
    public MyGraphview(Context context, float[] values) {

        super(context);
        value_degree=new float[values.length];
     //   System.out.println("values"+value_degree);
        for(int i=0;i<values.length;i++)
        {
            value_degree[i]=values[i];
            System.out.println("degree"+value_degree[i]);
        }
    }
    @Override
    protected void onDraw(Canvas canvas) {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
        super.onDraw(canvas);

        for (int i = 0; i < value_degree.length; i++) {//values2.length; i++) {
            if (i == 0) {
                paint.setColor(COLORS[i]);
                canvas.drawArc(rectf, 0, value_degree[i], true, paint);
            }
            else
            {
                    temp += (int) value_degree[i - 1];
                    paint.setColor(COLORS[i]);
                    canvas.drawArc(rectf, temp, value_degree[i], true, paint);
            }
        }
    }

}
}

A: You could try this:

*

*Override onTouchEvent in MyGraphView and check the action. Normally for ACTION_DOWN you should return true and on ACTION_UP handle the click.

*When you handle the click, extract the relative event coordinates from the center of the chart, something like
float relX = event.getX() - (rectf.right - rectf.left) * 0.5f;
float relY = event.getY() - (rectf.bottom - rectf.top) * 0.5f;

*Then you need to find the angle:
float angleInRad = (float)Math.atan2(relY, relX);

*Now you've got the angle but in radians and in the range -PI..PI. So:
int degree = (int)((angleInRad + Math.PI) * 180 / Math.PI);

*Now just find which interval (from value_degree) contains this value.
Also note that since the coordinate system is upside down, you might need to use -relY instead of relY. Just try it and change it if needed.


Hey everyone it's Kate Bosworth. She's an American actress who made her acting debut in Robert Redford's movie "The Horse Whisperer" but you probably remember her in the leading role of the 2002 movie "Blue Crush" where she played surfer girl.
I love her and she is looking quite cute in this purple psychedelic bikini. She looks much older now days but it looks like she's keeping it real as far as the plastic surgery goes. She might have had some done on her face but everything else looks real.
Hope to see more of her in the future.


text:
Grammar for OmniMark 11.0
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All rights reserved by Stilo Corporation. The information on this server contains protected property of Stilo Corporation. No part of this information or any file or document compiled from such information may be reproduced, translated or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical or otherwise, including, but not limited to, photocopying and recording, without the prior written permission of Stilo Corporation.
Stilo Corporation expressly permits users of the information on this server, or any file or document compiled from such information, to make and distribute an unlimited number of copies of the information; however, the information in such copies may not be altered, plagiarized, or resold for any purpose whatsoever. Each copy made must contain the following copyright statement:
Copyright © Stilo Corporation, 2003-2020. All rights reserved. This material contains protected property of Stilo Corporation, and is the sole property of Stilo Corporation.
Copyright © Stilo Corporation, 2003-2020. All rights reserved. OmniMark and the SWIRL Logo are registered trademarks of, and OmniMark SureSpeed and the SureSpeed Logo are trademarks of, Stilo Corporation. Stilo is a trademark of Stilo International. All rights reserved. Trademarks other than those owned by Stilo Corporation and Stilo International used in this document belong to their registered owners and appear here for reference only.


The Orlando Philharmonic will perform its annual concert at the Springs Community in Longwood, featuring the music of the '70s pop sensation ABBA, on Saturday, May 6th, 2017 at 8 p.m. The concert is located at the Springs Community in Longwood on State Road 434, one mile west of I-4. Gates will open at 5 p.m.
The Orlando Philharmonic's outdoor concert at the Springs is a beloved tradition in the Central Florida community and continues to sell out each year. This year, Music Director Eric Jacobsen will lead the Philharmonic in the Springs concert.
Featured in this performance is world-class touring act Jeans n' Classics performing the works of Swedish singing sensation ABBA. With hundreds of millions of albums sold, ABBA is without a doubt one of the most successful groups in the history of popular music. The program will celebrate favorite tunes by Abba like "Dancing Queen," "Mamma Mia," "Take A Chance On Me," "The Winner Takes It All" and "SOS." The concert is presented through the sponsorship of Certified Financial Group, an investment-manager and financial-planning firm headquartered in Altamonte Springs, Florida.
General Admission tickets start at $45 in advance and $50 at the door. VIP admission is $150 and includes VIP seating, catered buffet, complimentary wine/beer/soft drinks. With the ABBA Special Offer, general admission tickets are just $39 each when you buy 4 or more tickets by March 10. Tickets are available online at orlandophil.org, by calling 407.770.0071, or in person at the Box Office, located at The Plaza Live (425 N. Bumby Avenue, Orlando). The Box Office is open Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.


text:
Savitree Srichure (born 11 August 1975) is a Thai sprinter. She competed in the women's 4 × 100 metres relay at the 1996 Summer Olympics.

References

1975 births
Living people
Athletes (track and field) at the 1996 Summer Olympics
Savitree Srichure
Savitree Srichure
Place of birth missing (living people)
Asian Games medalists in athletics (track and field)
Savitree Srichure
Athletes (track and field) at the 1998 Asian Games
Medalists at the 1998 Asian Games
Olympic female sprinters
Savitree Srichure
Savitree Srichure

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Kramfors N, Sweden
Bålberget Memorial
This serene wooded hilltop has a dark history as the climactic point of the Swedish witch trials.
The memorial stone. Y-näsmannen/public domain
The execution site on the mountain. Y-näsmannen/public domain
A short path leads from a parking lot up to the memorial stone. Y-näsmannen/public domain
In the middle of the 17th century, witchcraft hysteria spread across Sweden, resulting in numerous witch trials and the death of some 400 people. This dark period in Swedish history was given the name "Det Stora Oväsendet," or "the Great Noise."
Top Places in Sweden
Växjö, Sweden
Växjö Echo Tower
The dome-shaped reservoir of this old water tower produces unique acoustic effects.
Added by Kris
Ludvika, Sweden
The Tuben or "Elk Showers"
Tiny Swedish village with a distinct local phenomenon known as an "Elk Shower."
Uppsala, Sweden
The Flogsta Scream
A nightly tradition fills the streets of Flogsta with a collective scream.
Added by Josh
See more things to do in Sweden »
The climax of the witch hunt occurred in Torsåker parish, in the northern province of Ångermanland. There, on one spring day of 1675, 71 people (65 of whom were women) were tried and executed. In total, about one-fifth of all the women in the parish were falsely accused of witchcraft and burned at the stake.
The victims were beheaded and their bodies burned on a hilltop near Torsåker parish. Today the mountain is still known as Bålberget ("Pyre Mountain") or Häxberget ("Witch Mountain"). A memorial stone was erected at the execution site in 1975 on the 300-year anniversary of the trial. The Swedish inscription on the stone translates to:
In 1675 witches' pyres burnt here. Women died, men judged. The belief of the time befalls man.
A signposted trail called "Witches' Path" will take you the 4.6 miles (7.5 km) from Torsåker Church to the site. From the surrounding villages, you can also drive up to the vicinity of the site, where there is a parking space. The nearby town of Prästmon houses a museum dedicated to the witch trials. More visitor information for the memorial site and museum on their website.
witch burningssexismwitchesexecutionmemorialshistory
Adam Sarac
180 FÄRESTA
Kramfors N
to Maine, Greenland & Labrador, Peruvian Amazon, and more.
Ragunda S, Sweden
King Chulalongkorn Memorial
An ornate Thai pavilion in the middle of Sweden.
Jämtland, Sweden
The Dead Falls of Lake Ragunda
A botched 18th-century canal silenced one of Sweden's most magnificent waterfalls.
Bureplatsen
A massive land art sculpture fills a green space once tarnished by a landfill.
Added by maximal
Ragunda N, Sweden
Borgvattnet Vicarage
Said to be one of Sweden's most haunted places, this vicarage once even attracted a ghost-busting priest.
Added by blau
Mistley, England
Old Knobbley
This ancient oak tree sheltered accused "witches" in the 17th century.
Added by YoAdO
Bessie Sheppard Stone
This lonely memorial marks the supposedly haunted site of a brutal 19th-century murder.
Added by Capemarsh
Washington Memorial Chapel
An eccentric priest's tribute to George Washington, this chapel tells the story of the American Revolution.
Added by wallaj3
Archibald Dickson Memorial
A monument at Alicante Marina honors a little-known hero of the Spanish Civil War.
Added by Dr Alan P Newman


text:
Q: Sorting a string vector in C++ with a special value to place at the end I'm trying to make a function that sorts a vector of strings with this criteria:
All strings= "NULL" must go to the end of the vector and decreasing from there. The rest of the strings must keep their order.
For example given:
{"Potato", "NULL", "NULL", "Charmander" , "Spaghetti", "NULL"}

the output should be:
{"Potato","Charmander","Spaghetti","NULL","NULL","NULL"}

I tried with this but it did not quite work:
bool comp(string i, string j){
    if(i=="NULL"){return i>j;}
     if (j=="NULL") {return i<j;}

Thanks in advance

A: You could do one of two things:

*

*First take care of the "NULL"s, then sort the other strings the naive way we regularly would

*Sort all string using the more complex ordering you defined

Handling "NULL"s first
The standard library has a "partition" algorithm, which will move all elements matching a certain criterion to the end of the string.
std::vector<string> vec {
    "Potato", "NULL", "NULL", "Charmander" , "Spaghetti", "NULL"
};
auto is_not_null = [](const std::string& s) { return s != "NULL"; }
auto nulls_start = std::partition(vec.begin(), vec.end(), is_not_null);
auto non_nulls_end = nulls_start;
std::sort(vec.begin(), non_nulls_end);

Sort with a complex comparison
std::vector<string> vec {
    "Potato", "NULL", "NULL", "Charmander" , "Spaghetti", "NULL"
};
auto comparator =
    [](const std::string& lhs, const std::string& rhs)
    {
        return rhs == "NULL" or lhs <= rhs;
    };
std::sort(vec.begin(), vec.end(), comparator);

Note the difference between the comparison here and your comp() function. The comparator answers question "should the first string I got come before the second string?" - and your comp() function just doesn't give an answer that corresponds to your requirement.

A: You can use partition algorithm:
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <vector>
#include <algorithm>

using namespace std;

int main(int argc, const char * argv[]) {

    vector<string> vec {
        "Potato", "NULL", "NULL", "Charmander" , "Spaghetti", "NULL"
    };

    partition(begin(vec), end(vec), // Partition the values
               [](const string& s) { return s != "NULL"; });

    copy(begin(vec), end(vec), ostream_iterator<string>{cout, " "});
    cout << endl;

    return 0;
}
// RESULT: Potato Spaghetti Charmander NULL NULL NULL

NOTE: If you need to maintain relative ordering use stable_partition instead.

A: You can write your own version of function that puts some strings to the end i.e:
namespace myAlgo {
        template<typename ForwardIter, class T >
        ForwardIter moveToEnd(ForwardIter first, ForwardIter last, const T& value) {
            if (first == last) {
                return first;
            }
            ForwardIter fasterFirst = first;
            //Shift strings that do not match value to the left in stable manner
            while (++fasterFirst != last) {
                if (*fasterFirst != value) {
                    *++first = *fasterFirst;
                }
            }
            ForwardIter pivot = first;
            //Fill rest with value
            while (first != last) {
                *++first = value;
            }
    return pivot;
    }
}

Then just:
myAlgo::moveToEnd(vec.begin(), vec.end(), "NULL");


2 sub-albums and 247 images in this album on 28 pages.
Still have to wire the Ammeter.
Moss Motors kit included dash vinyl. Local upholstry shop did the gluing. The gauges were cleaned.
Cleaned the steering housing. It came out kind of a neat black/brown bakelite color.
OK the safety gauge is wrong... inexpensive.